Marie Manthey’s Nursing Salon

About Me

In a nutshell, I spent 25 years in hospital nursing in every position from staff nurse to VP, then another 25 years developing and running a consulting company full of highly competent, wise and compassionate people who are continuously devising new strategies that move the profession forward.In 2000, I sold that company to the wonderful people who work there and am now enjoying semi-retirement.

During that time, I have seen (and been a part of) some amazing changes in the profession. I was in on the ground floor of the project that became Primary Nursing, and wrote a book about it. I have helped hospitals around the word, most recently in Hong Kong, design and implement Primary Nursing systems. I helped develop Leading an Empowered Organization, a leadership program that has reached well over 100,000 people around the world. They say I have conducted seminars for over 1 million nurses. It doesn’t seem like that many, but when I stop to think about it, I realize it may be right.

Through all of that, my passion for the staff nurse — the nurse at the bedside, delivering the care — has never wavered.

I have been in love with the nursing profession all my life, it seems. When I was 5 years old, I was hospitalized for a month, and the only good memory I have of it is the caring I felt from a nurse named Florence Marie Fisher. I knew then that I wanted my life to be about helping others experience that same caring when they were sick.

If you want more official information, see my bio on the Creative Health Care Management website.

Like this:

Being the first to comment “what about you” is a so wonderful moment very similar at the Summit of Sages we just had some days ago!

Coming from a different country, taking almost a day long to get there with a person very special and to myself “the most important nurse we have in Brazil”, your dear friend, Mrs. Lore Cecilia Marx. I knew so much about you since many years ago through Lore’s mind and eyes. And then when I saw you person to person in Oct 13th I think to myself: There is the most famous and wonderful woman that one of my Sages, Lore, wish I could ever know one day.

The time we spent with you and all the people were talking about the same matter was just “amazing”, that there is a meaning in our language some like a wonderful moment that a human might have to into this life. I really would like to thank you and congratulations for all your job around the world. Nothing that Lore always told me was different from that I saw through my own eyes.

Dr. Maya Angelou, John Nelson, Georgia, Leah, Dr. John Howe and every each special person that was there: an extraordinary moment certainly. Tears tears and tears coming from my eyes…

That was not enough: “The Rainbow in the clouds” meant so much to me and, as a magic moment, as soon as I left Minnesota / Saint Paul I started to see a lot of rainbows that the Nature gives to us. I never have seen so many rainbows in my life. From the airplanes windows and another ones. One of them, in Chicago, on Oct 18th, Mr. Bruce Komiske said to me right the time we saw it: “Make a wish!” – I answered that I did not need anymore, because I believe that God heard our pray. I am sure that Lore approves what I am saying to you and I am sure that the way you think about Nursing, Healthcare, Relationship, Primary Nursing, Healing, Social Justice is the same way that people who makes the difference in our World.
We must do together “Somewhere over the Rainbow”.
With love, Lilia.

Thanks for the comment Lilia. The Summit continues to reverberate among groups of nurses here. I hope you are enjoying telling nurses in Brazil about the Social Justice topic and generating discussions among them about it’s meaning in nursing and in the world. Last night we had a salon here at my home and it was a remarkable event in that the discussion went deep into meaning….and reflected just how thoughtful and concerned nurses are about the injustices we see every day in health care….and in the world. I truly believe these discussions enrich our lives and can only lead to positive constructive outcomes. Let’s keep it going!

Please add me to your mailing list. Thank you for such an interesting lecture today. I would enjoy coming to one of your salons. Being a single mom with 3 boys and finishing my Masters in Nursing…schedule is busy but hope I will be able to come some of the time.

Your English is always just fine. We can always manage to communicate and that is what is important. I look forward to being with you in Brazil or here in the US. Will you be going to the Relationship Based Care Symposium in July? (info on chcm.com). Also, have you heard I am doing the first ever Primary Nursing Practicuum the following week….August 3-8 here in Minneapolis. It will be a great experience and I plan to help people find all the answers they need to overcome the problems of short term patients and 12 hr. shifts…etc, etc.

My book is The Practice of Primary Nursing and is available through our website, chcm.com….and I believe at Amazon as well. There is another book of importance on this topic, Relationship Based Care, also available from chcm.com and Amazon. Thanks for considering this.

Dear Marie,
I am so happy to have found your website and nursing salon blog. I have never heard of a nursing salon and am thrilled by the whole idea. I have often thought that nurses should be able to get together and talk about their nursing and the nursing profession in regards to moral distress and nursing challenges faced every day. I am masters prepared (nursing education, 2007 graduate) RN who works in a community hospital and teaches nursing for a couple academic institutions. A couple years ago our hospital was working toward Magnet status. I was part of the design team in which we formulated the by-laws for our shared governance. Within those by-laws we included “The Manthey Pledge”. I recently mentioned this pledge to my students and how we live by your words on the unit in regards to our relationships with each other and that it is a pledge that should be a part of every nursing unit. However, I do not know where this pledge originated from. I was hoping that you would be able to give me the reference for it. I believe you and I have a lot in common when it comes to the love of the nursing profession and I look forward to reading your books and blogs!

Linda, I’m glad you like the idea of a Salon. My dream is to have them going on in every community where nurses are working with patients. What I especially like about them is the fact that they are completely separated from any institution….any hospital or any college. I like the fact that we get together and talk through big and small issues involved in our incredible profession…..and that we are helping each other in doing so. The other thing I love is that we have such wonderful mixtures of ages and experiences. When all these levels and types of life experiences are mixed together in a good conversation….the results are amazing.

I could go on and on about this….but mainly I want you to consider being a catalyst to getting one started in Boca Raton. It doesn’t really take anything but a few friends or ‘like-mindeds’ getting together and figuring out where and when. I do have some print material I can send that will help…..and I could come down and do a ‘kick-off’ if it would help…..I would just need my expenses covered. You don’t need me to get it started, however, and I will do everything I can to support you so it can be sucessful.

And…what you are calling the Manthey Pledge is really called Committment to my Coworker….and copies of the card can be obtained through my company’s website, chcm.com and there is a good description of how to use it in our book, Relationship Based Care.

Dear Marie Manthey,
Hello! I’m Fátima Gerolin, from Brazil. I hope everything is fine! I am very happy to share with you our initial experience with the Primary Nursing in the hospital where I work here in Brazil. Lore Marx is guiding us and we are delighted to have this opportunity.
Respectfully,
Fátima Gerolin

My name is Teena Denny. I attended your presentation in Rapid City, SD a few months ago. I am an employee for the Regional Network in one of their hospitals. I was truely engaged in everything you said and the focus.

I am also currently a nursing student at Western Dakota Technical Institute in Rapid City. Nursing has always been a dream of mine and I am finally able to pursue it. I started classes a couple weeks ago.

Last week one of my instructors, also the Nurse Advisor, Ms.Lerback, took her her class period and used it to introduce us to nursing and how it was all started by showing us the Florence Nighingale film. This had a serious impact on me and further justified why I am there, and in the program. Jani and I had a heart to heart, and I believe we are all in it for the same reason.

I am writing you because I would love to hear you speak again. Your wisdom and knowledge are great. I believe my class and maybe the senior class would greatly benefit from your presence. I don’t know what your availability is like, or what the cost would be for something like this, I just know that it would be wonderful to have you. I know that Ms.Lerback, my advisor, would welcome the opportunity with open arms.

I look forward to hearing from you soon. Please contact me at the email listed below. It would be of great honor to be in your presence once more and to share in your experiences and wisdom. There is so much to learn!

Thanks so much for your kind remarks. My words only touch those whose hearts are truly aligned with the practice of nursing. You are clearly one of those. I will send you an email with some info re. my availability. Meanwhile….let me know how your education is going. Let’s keep a conversation going on the blog.

Dear Marie,
That would be great! I look forward to hearing from you again soon. It is now going on, I think, week 4. It has been kind of a blur. There is so…much to take in and absorb. Each week we go through a different unit and test on it. It is quite the challenge as I knew it would be. I have learned that many things that I have picked up through the years is not very helpful when compared to the book. I continue to look forward to the journey and will embrace the challenge.Everything is a learning process. I hope all is going well in your “neck of the woods”. That’s what we called it anyway in Wisconsin. Take care and talk to you again soon!

I would love to hear you speak and nurses here in Michigan could really benefit from a salon. Our profession has suffered greatly at the hands of for profits and as a result the true calling that nursing is has been buried beneath the bitterness of negativism. I so enjoy your website and often share your wisdom and insight with colleauges.I believe the flame that Nightingale carried is being snuffed out and nurses who believe in the calling need to reignite that light for future nurses. I have a dear patient who was one of the first African American nurses to work in a hospital in Washington D.C.At age 90, her stories have been lost to Alzheimers but the compassion she has within her remains as vivid as ever.

I think a Salon may be starting up in the Rochester Michigan area, and perhaps also in the Traverse City area. I’ll try to post info re. this as I get it. As a historian, I’m sorry the profession missed capturing the experiences of the nurse you mentioned in your note to me.

I had never heard of a nursing salon until now. What a wonderful idea.I would definitely love to start one here in Eastern Massachusetts.

This is so embarrassing. Until very recently, I had never heard of you. You are interviewing my manager for the publication,Creative Nurse and that is how I came to hear about you.

Like some nurses on this blog, I am on a Master’s program, my interest is in Education. I often feel I’m bubbling with passion and enthusiasm for the future of nursing education but have no one to exchange such ideas with. I look forward to more conversation with you.

Jennifer, first let me apologize for not responding sooner, sometimes I forget to check the blog! And please don’t feel embarrassed about not knowing me…..there is more info. re. me on the website of the company I founded, Creative Health CAre Management, (chcm.com). Please do get Salons started in your area. I will do anything I can to help. If you want to talk, call me at 612-827-1611. There are a couple of articles in Creative Nursing and one in Nursing Forum an online Journal. That one is called A TALK FOR ALL TIMES.
I’m having one tomorrow night and will hopefully add a note about it on Friday of this week.
PS. I love your entusiasm and energy.

I just love the idea of the Salon. I think there are so many nurses out there who truly love their patients and love nursing…but sometimes seem just so bogged down. I am a nurse educator in Connecticut…and watch that enthusium in some of our new nurses diminish. A place in which everyone to gather and talk….and share….sounds like Heaven. We all need to find a way to feel a part of nursing…and to always keep it near and dear. Conversations are a great way to help.
Are there any Salons in Connecticut?

Not that I know of….However, a consultant with my company, Creative Health Care Management is organizing a conference call about setting up a virtual Salon. I’m not sure what that would look like, but Iif you are interested in that idea, let me know and I’ll try to keep you posted. Otherwise, I encourage you and anyone and everyone to become a host for a Salon in your community. It really isn’t at all hard, and within a short time, the pay-back is such that you wonder why we haven’t been doing this forever. If you or a couple of you are interested, I have some info and a bib of articles I can send you. After you read the stuff, I will be happy to talk to you and answer any questions you might have. My email is mmanthey@chcm.com and I welcome an email from you if you would like me to send you some print info…..

After 40 years working full time in nursing, I have been riffed. I am absolutely devastated. My family states that it is OK with them because I needed a break. Two of my six children are nurses. I was mentoring one nurse in the MSN program at North park University and two other nurses in the BSN to NP program at University of Illinois. Presently, I am completing my Healthcare Leadership Certificate from University of Illinois. My intention with the nursing certificate was to warm up for the Nurse Practitioner Master’s program then complete my DNP. Recently I was given the opportunity to mentor nurses in the Wound Center, Endo Lab, and Gero-Psych. To my surprise I found that I loved the Geriatric Psych population over age 65. In the zip code 60640 the largest amount of antipsychotic drug use in the United States was located where I practiced. I thought my role could be to go out into the community of 25 nursing homes to assess and evaluate patients need for acute psychiatric hospitalization verses adjusting medication in collaboration with the Psychiatrist. Also, I thought I could be of assistance to the nurses caring for the patient by helping them figure out how to best care for that individual patient through understanding of the diagnosis and treatment.

I am ready to host a Nursing Salon at my home or else where, “I have the time, I am a nurse”.

Sheila, I am so sorry you have been riffed. Believe me I know the feeling. As truisms are true….I am compelled to state the one about doors closing so other doors can open. Please do start a Salon in Chicago. There is one in some suburbs….and Chicago could probably support 20 or more.
You must know you are on the right track with your clinical interest…you may be able to peruse your dream as a consultant….offering nursing homes a service that will improve the quality of their work…(and don’t forget to show reimbursement benefits to your service)!

Let me know if I can help in any way. If you go to the website chcm.com and click on my picture, you will get I into my email.

Yesterday, I received an email from a respected colleague of mine that read: “Dear Doris, Hope all is well with you and that you are having a peaceful weekend (probably not possible for you however).
I was asked the other day where the concept of “Primary Nursing” originated but I am ashamed to say I don’t know. Are you able to provide me with this information please? Thanks a bunch, Olga

My reply was instantaneous: Marie Manthey.

Marie, I think you will enjoy knowing that here in Canada, you have many followers. Restructuring, re-engineering, LEAN and any other fad, have not erased the notion that continuity of care and continuity of caregiver are central pillars for excellent nursing care and patients’ outcomes.

The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO), has in fact developed position statements on this very issue, I would be delighted to send these to you and your amazing team. We also have Best Practice Guidelines – 48 of them – the majority clinical and eight related to healthy work environments. The BPG on Client Centred Care speaks specifically to continuity of care and continuity of caregiver as central to client centred care, and provide Primary Nursing as the best organizational model to deliver on these concepts. .

Marie, how can I connect with you to invite you to speak at a conference?

Hi Marie I just wanted to say thanks for speaking at the MN School of Business Nursing Forum Last week. As a student I took a lot away from it. Your story is a powerful one, hopefully I too can color in a few patients’ coloring books as I am sure you have countless times. I mentioned you in my blog for Raney’s class I hope that is ok :) thanks again.

Marie i would also like to know when you are speaking at a conference. I have created the “Coogan RN” model. If you have time I would like to discuss it with you and other nurse colleagues.
The “Coogan RN” Model was last discussed at Connie Hardy’s home at a nursing salon attended by myself and 3 other nurses.

Marie: because our River Valley Nursing Center (see website) has one of its missions as promote the leadership of nurses, I am interested in having you formally or informally give us some insight into some actions we might add to our repetoire to continue this mission. Barbara Zell, Executive Director, River Valley Community Partnership

I just want you to know the hour we spent together on Thursday at the Symposium over soft drinks was the highlight of the week for me! I look forward to continuing my work with you and the rest of the team, and am certain I still have much to learn from you.